Biography: The Jump

     My grandpa, brother and I flew to the Denver airport before renting a car and driving a couple hours through the mountains towards Aspen, Colorado.  We were traveling there to visit my sister and her fiance, who worked lived around the Aspen area.  The road to Aspen was winding, with many ups and downs and curls around the gorgeous, snow-capped mountains.  I remember eating a little too much beef jerky; by the time we were getting close to my sister's house I was feeling quite car sick.  Right as we pulled up, I hurled all over the rental car...oops.  Little did I know that this would not be the defining moment of this trip--this would only be the beginning of a rough 4th grade spring break.  I was super excited to snowboard with my siblings--my sister and her fiance were excellent snowboarders, though this trip would only be my second time on the slopes.  The day after we arrived and I tainted the rental car, we set out to go snowboarding on Snowmass mountain.  I remember we went down our first run, and we were feeling pretty good.  We then decided to go to this area of the mountain called at park, which had some small beginner jumps and rollers.  I went down one of the jumps and did alright.  The second time I tried the jump, however, I didn't speed-check before hitting the jump at all.  This meant that I flew off the jump very out of control.  The next thing I remember I was laying flat on my back, crying and struggling to breathe.  My sister came down to check on me, reassuring me that the crash looked pretty sweet.  After several minutes, I managed to get up and ski down the mountain.  I was miserable though.  My arm was hurting terribly.  But my brother had told my sister that I was always sort of dramatic when it came to getting hurt, so no one really took me seriously.  I decided I was done for the day, and I went and took a nap in my sister's office (which was at Snowmass mountain) while my family hit the slopes for a couple more hours.  When they returned for me, I was still in a lot of pain.  My sister and her fiance Joey continued to listen to my brother--I was just being dramatic.  That night was without a doubt the worst sleepless night I have ever had.  My arm ached, I drifted in and out of sleep but it was never good sleep.  The next morning, when I was still in bad shape, my sister decided we should probably go to Urgent Care to check it out.  Sure enough, we discovered that I had broken my arm.  I remember my arm felt a hundred times better once it finally had a cast.  To this day, my sister feels bad about not taking me to get my arm checked out sooner.  That broken arm ended my 4th grade skiing trip, and even made me more tentative when I would go out to snowboard in the following years.  Despite the accident, I still love snowboarding, and that mountain. 

A snowboarder flying off of a jump.  I don't think my jump was QUITE this high ;)

Source: Flickr

Notes: This is one of the classic stories that my siblings still talk about today.  As I said, my sister felt really bad following our trip to the urgent care.  I honestly thought it was pretty cool to get a cast, and get it signed by all of my friends! I like sharing this story, it's one of the earliest memories I have of snowboarding.  I have gone many times since this accident, so it didn't ruin skiing for me thankfully.